“I Once Was Blind”

I am listening through John Piper’s sermon series on the book of Romans, which he started in 1998. Piper starts off every new year with a set of topical sermons, the last couple of which correspond with national “holidays.” I say “holidays” rather than simply holidays because the two “holidays” don’t necessarily bring the usual happiness that I associate with the word “holiday.”

Depending on whether “Racial Harmony Sunday” falls on the second or third Sunday, either the first or the first and second sermons of the new year are on prayer and/or meditation on Scripture. Then, for “Racial Harmony Sunday,” he preaches a sermon on racial issues past and present.

The Sunday after “Racial Harmony Sunday” is “Sanctity of Life Sunday,” since MLK, Jr.’s birthday and holiday are celebrated on January 15, and the Roe v. Wade decision fell like the blade of a guillotine on January 22, 1973.

And so, after 26 sermons through the first chapter and first sixteen verses of Romans, Piper paused to reflect on Meditating and Delighting in the Law of the Lord and Praying Without Ceasing, followed by Class, Culture, and Ethnic Identity in Christ for “Racial Harmony Sunday.” I include MLK, Jr’s birthday with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade in that it does not have the usual “happy holiday” connotation because I cannot fully celebrate MLK, Jr. Day. There is no racism behind my lack of unbridled celebration for that “holiday.” The reason that my celebration is tempered is twofold- first because of the sorry situation in our country that necessitated Dr. King’s actions. And second, the fact that I don’t think racism is absolutely absent in our country today. But, that will have to be another blog at another time.

The reason for this blog is Piper’s sermon Visiting Orphans in a World of AIDS and Abortion. That abortion is legal in these United States is a travesty. In Piper’s sermon, he argues- convincingly, I think- that children who are aborted are in a worse position than orphans. His logic is that orphaned children have been abandoned by their parents in some fashion, whereas a baby on its way to an abortion has parents that want to kill him or her.

“Pro-choice” people (or “pro-death” possibly, as they are the counterparts to the “pro-life” faction) generally try to argue either that life begins at birth rather than conception, or that to abort or not to abort is a decision with which government should not interfere. In one of my college Political Science classes we read an article in favor of legalized abortion, but never read anything from the alternative perspective (We were encouraged to read the pro-life article in the same book of essays, but it was neither required nor discussed in class like its pro-choice counterpart). The article was well-written and persuasive. And with my safe disance- nowhere near any abortions, pictures of abortions, details of abortions or of the effects on mothers who abort- and only a pro-choice “expert’s” article against my own personal previously anti-abortion position, I joined the pro-choice fold.

I was still opposed to abortion personally, but believed that the best position politically was to allow for those who wanted to have an abortion to be free to do so.

If you find yourself believing, as I used to, that abortion is a decision in which the government should abstain, I would strongly encourage you to google “abortion pictures” and “Post-Abortion Syndrome.” I think that, as with many things, a person should not base their beliefs on impractical things. I do not believe that a person should base their beliefs purely on emotional reactions either, but I think that it is foolish to base your beliefs on abortion without knowing about the process involved, seeing pictures, and knowing about the effects on mothers who abort.

According to this site, there are approximately 46 million abortions per year in the world, and about 1.37 million in the U.S. per year. One of the more appalling statements on the site was that, “93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).” So, if you hold that abortion should be legal for circumstances such as rape, incest, or when the mother’s health is in danger, then you are arguing for only about 7% of abortions. And it is certainly conceivable that abortions could be banned with an exception for circumstances such as those.

You can read a little about Post Abortion Syndrome at this site. You can also see some symptons of what this site refers to as Post Abortion Stress Syndrome here.

More liberal beliefs about the beginning of life place that occurrance somewhere between 15 and 22 weeks, and many believe that life begins when the baby is conceived and the pregnancy begins. You can read an argument for life beginning at conception here, or for 15 or 22 weeks here.

I personally now totally reject the idea that abortion is a decision in which government should not be involved. I believe that abortion is murder, and that government should be involved with the murder of unborn babies the same way government is involved with all other murders. I also believe that the potential mothers who are considering abortions should know of the experiences of Post Abortion Syndrome (or Post Abortion Stress Syndrome) before they decide to abort.

This site puts the number of abortions since 1973 somewhere around 40 million, or to put that number in a bit of perspective, almost 7 times the number of Jews that were killed in the Holocaust.